A blog written for residents of Lewisham

Category Archives: Uncategorized

Please be aware that there will be changes to your refuse and recycling collections over the Christmas period for the week commencing Monday 21st December 2015 and again at the New Year the week commencing Monday 28th December 2015. See below for full details.

Week Commencing 21st December

Normal Collection day

Revised collection day

Monday 21st December

Monday 21st December

Tuesday 22nd December

· Tuesday 22nd December

Wednesday 23rd December

· Wednesday 23rd December

Thursday 24th December

· Thursday 24th December

Friday 25th December

· Sunday 27th December

Don’t forget to put your bins out if you want a collections over Christmas and the New Year

The Council’s Clean Streets (Enforcement) Team is continuing to work hard at combating environmental crime within Lewisham Borough. There is constant proactive enforcement activity taking place around all parts of the borough with a recent weekend waste operation being very successful in catching offenders in Catford, Deptford, Forest Hill, Lewisham & Sydenham.

Since 1st August 2015 over 100 individuals (including business owners) have been fined for waste offences committed borough wide. Officers have also issued more than 20 fines for fly-posting offences committed at various locations. Last week a major serial fly-tipper who had been blighting the Brockley Environment with his criminal activity was found guilty of fly-tipping at Bexley Magistrates Court and sentenced to a fine & costs just short of £3500.

Paper copies of the survey can be filled in at the SELCHP Open House event, Landmann Way, on 20th September and at some Lewisham libraries. These will be drop in sessions in Lewisham, Catford, Deptford and Downham libraries, although at Sydenham and Crofton Park libraries people can pop in during opening hours, see details below.

This week (22nd – 28th June) is recycle week. Lewisham Council along with lots of local authorities across the UK are encouraging their residents to think more about what can be recycled around the home. The short animated film below illustrates very clearly what other materials there are in the home that should be finding their way into your green recycling bin.

When it comes to plastics and recycling, the picture can be a bit confusing for residents all wanting to do the right thing. There are just so many different types of plastics in the world, plastics that people use everyday, which many people assume can be recycled.

Plastics come in all shapes and sizes and whilst we do ask for all your milk bottles and plastic bottles, it doesn’t necessarily mean we want every type of plastic.

So what are the plastics we don’t want? The following list details some of the items that Viridor, our current contractor and materials recovery facility operator told us they can’t recycle:

Laminated plastics – these can go into your refuse bin

CDs and cases and their transparent sleeves – charity shops or the refuse bin

Childrens toys – to the local Reuse and Recycling Centre or toy libary

New technologies have made video and music cassettes redundant but many people still have lots of these at home. These are made up of plastic, metal and tape which becomes entangled in the sorting equipment if they end up in the recycling bin. We don’t have any facilities to collect these and the nearest place to process and recycle them is in Bristol.

There are also other ways to make use of some items as well. For example CDs can be used as bird scarers if you’re a gardener or have an allotment. Freecycle could also be seen as a way finding a home for these items as local community projects might be able to use them (often projects like things with different textures and colours to create mosaics for example) or pass them on to friends and family, or sell them on online sites.

Another item that we’d like to see out of the recycling bin is clothing and textiles. Whilst we have been collecting them in the recycling bin when we were with a different contractor, the time has come to change this. We are now asking residents not to use this route and instead use our textile banks or your local charity shops.

Please take clothing to a textile bank or a charity shop and avoid using your recycling bin

This is because the quality is massively reduced when clothes and textiles are put into the bin. After leaving the bin they are tipped into a truck and then tipped again and sorted at the materials recovery facility (MRF). This isn’t what you’d call a very clean operation and as you can imagine, the clothes get very dirty, smelly and reduced in quality and value. By placing textiles in our textile banks you can be sure someone will be able to enjoy the benefits of your generosity. Visit this link to see where our textile banks are, http://www.lewisham.gov.uk/myservices/wasterecycle/textile-recycling/Pages/Textile-recycling-banks.aspx

As a general rule of thumb regarding recycling, we say that if it’s not on the sticker on your recycling bin, then please put the item into your refuse bin.

Hot and refreshing, nothing beats a good cup of tea. Making it, and popping that little tea bag into a steaming cup just gives you a happy feeling.

But happy feelings aren’t necessarily what the farmers and workers have when they are growing and harvesting the tea. Many work long hours, are underpaid, and live in poverty. Health clinics, running water, electricity and adequate schooling for their children are just things to dream about, rather than a reality. They often cannot even enjoy a cup of tea that they’ve grown themselves.

Thankfully, Fairtrade is working to bring better working conditions, better pay and better community facilities and infrastructure to these people. Farmers associated with Fairtrade now wear smiles as they see their kids furthering their education, bridges being built to connect isolated villages, and medical clinics opening to provide help for the sick.

Each year, Fairtrade week highlights the need for more support for these and the many communities who are not yet benefiting from this organisation.

One way of raising awareness is getting our local schools involved. Here in Lewisham, primary schools have been studying the lives of people around the globe who produce goods such as tea and the great things Fairtrade do.

Encouraged by Lewisham Council, Lewisham kids have been designing Fairtrade posters to enter a competition where the winner’s poster is used on the side of one of our recycling lorries. This year’s winner was Isla Prosser from All Saint’s Church of England Primary School.

Winner of the Fairtrade poster competition, Isla Prosser stands proudly infront of her art work with Cllr Onikosi

By choosing Fairtrade products you’re helping to transform the livelihoods of more than 1.4 million people in 74 countries around the world! I’d have a cup of Fairtrade tea to that!